


Claustrophobia

by Dusty_Forgotten



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-15
Updated: 2014-02-15
Packaged: 2018-01-12 13:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1187541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dusty_Forgotten/pseuds/Dusty_Forgotten
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A certain doctor's daughter tries to leave Vault 101- two years early. Can Butch convince her to stay?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Claustrophobia

Butch Deloria was, figuratively speaking, talking a jumper down from a tall building. Except instead of one foot in open air, the doctor's daughter had a finger on the vault seal control panel, and instead of running from life, she was convinced she was chasing a better one. Both were on the precipice of suicide.

"Erin. Step away from the controls."

"You can't stop me, Butch." she argued coolly.

He scoffed. "C'mon. It probably doesn't even work!"

"Really?" She flicked a switch and the warning lights came on- no sirens, thank God.

He was a bit less calm now. "It won't work. You need the Overseer."

"You need to power it up from the Overseer's terminal, yes. His password is 'Amata', by the way."

"Psh! This is crazy, Doc! There's nothing out there, except maybe radiation or-or mutants, or something. You open that door, they get in, and they kill us all."

She turned to him finally, the bags under her blue eyes darker than usual. "You're wrong. There are people out there."

"You're lying."

"The vault was opened less than seventeen years ago."

He swallowed hard, but didn't respond. "There's logs on the Overseer's terminal." she answered the question he hadn't yet asked. "Just think, Butch, how else did the radroaches get in? Did they burrow through seven inches of steel and concrete?"

He shook his head in denial. "You're lying." he repeated. "You're lying!"

"Oh, use your brain for once! Do you remember anything from Vault-Tec history? They were experimental contractors, Butch! It's an experiment! We're all an experiment!"

She flipped around and pushed a slider on the panel; the magnet used for dislodging the seal dropped into place.

He knew he had to act now, before it locked in and she hit that button, but what could he say...? No. This was past words.

*

They had a fling- a brief fling- after prom, mostly necking it (and maybe a couple brushes in the pelvic region, but he couldn't be sure) in what she called her "secret base" on the Reactor Level. The next day they agreed that someone must have spiked the punch, and went back to beating the crap out of and passive-aggressively one-upping each other. He'd still drop by her Base every once in a while, and they would talk about things that neither really spoke about otherwise. His mother. Her mother. His fear of abandonment. Her crush on Amata. (She nearly castrated him for letting that slip to the girl once, but she took it as his usual sick humour. Thankfully.)

He never brought up _his_ crush on _her_ , but it was enough when she'd lean into him and mutter about circuitry, or whatever she was entertaining herself with at the time. Sometimes she'd wrap her arms around his neck say he was her only friend. Once "I love you" was mumbled between her sobs, but they never spoke of it.

*

The Tunnel Snake snatched her wrist and yanked her away from the controls. She squeaked a bit in surprise, but the noise was drowned against his lips. Her hands were mashed between their bodies, and her shoulder knitted up, but she didn't pull away, and after a moment her hands dropped, then snaked up his back as his grip moved from her neck to rest on her hips. At last, they disconnected, but lingered closed-eyed, breath splashing against each others faces.

"...You're an asshole." she whispered, her eyes finally drifting open.

"You're insane." he responded, and they watched each other for a few leisurely moments, flashing yellow warning lights casting a jaundice glow on the couple. "Will you come back now?"

The brunette swallowed and nodded, pulling away to flick at the controls again; the lights died, the magnet reset, and the backlights on the panel dimmed out. Her hand lingered.

"...You okay?"

She stared at the heavy metal cork on her tiny world, memorized its every facet. She considered how the mechanism would operate, how _fascinating_ the sequence must be. "Yeah." she forced out, and strode back over, Butch's arm draping comfortingly over her shoulder as they passed through the interior door. "Yeah..."

Maybe she didn't want to know.

 


End file.
